254 WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



Pur- G. mexicanum, though when the seed has a distinct fuzz that circum- 



ens stance may as a rule be accepted as justifying their removal from 



mexi- G. purpurasc&ns. In others the wool is often even rufous or 

 khaki coloured, thus marking very possibly a return to the wild 

 condition of G. taitense. Poiret (I.e.) says that M. Ledru had 

 furnished him with a sample of cotton from Porto Eico which 

 he identified with the plant mentioned in Bohr's ' Observ. on 

 Cotton,' p. 67, as obtained from that island. But Poiret adds that 

 the seeds are often partly or wholly covered with down, so thick that 

 the colour of the seed cannot be readily perceived a peculiarity 

 suggestive (as just stated) of G. microcarpum, more especially 



Shrub as Eohr himself speaks of the seeds in addition as firmly pressed 



cotton. against each other. Edwards (' Jamaica ' I.e.] calls this the ' shrub 

 cotton/ and alludes to the fact that the staple is much depreciated 

 through the seed being soft and thus readily broken up and hence 

 mixed with the wool. He also alludes to a brown form with a 

 partially fuzzy seed, doubtless a hybrid race, which he calls Nankeen. 

 Cultivation. Nearly all the early French explorers refer to a cotton 

 with naked seeds or to cotton of high merit seen by them in the 



Antilles. Antilles. So far as I can learn the cottons in question were very 

 largely, one is tempted to say almost exclusively, the present species, 

 and to the French, therefore, is due the early distribution of this plant 

 and to its having come to be designated Bourbon cotton. It would 

 appear to be essentially an insular plant. In a volume of correspond - 



India. ence on the ' Culture and Manufacture of Cotton ' (published by the 

 East India Company in 1836, p. 54 et seq.) are numerous letters 

 that tell of the experiments made with a view to acclimatise this 

 species in India, the seed having been procured from Mauritius. The 

 endeavour seems then to have been mainly made in Kaira District, 

 Bombay. In 1816 it is said the Honourable Court would learn with 

 regret that a further consignment of seed had been procured before 

 it had been ascertained that the experiment had proved a failure. 

 According to Donnell, Bourbon cotton was introduced into Gujarat 



South in 1814. It would appear to be the ' Indian cotton ' of Kohr's account 



America. of ^ cottons grown j n Sainte-Croix in 1785-90. (See ' Obs. sur la 

 Cult, du Cot.' pp. 37-9.) Eohr found it in Colombia, near Cartha- 

 gena, being there cultivated by a highly intelligent Native hence the 

 name he gave to it of ' Indian cotton,' a name that led to the confu- 

 sion of its being a cotton of India. Eohr further observes that 

 it bears twice a year a very white and silky floss, not injured by 

 rain, and which separates readily from the seed. It can be planted 



